Friends

Monday night I found myself in the Bay Area crashing with my friends Pete and Meghan at their pad close to Berkeley.  Pretty much this trip I've just been riding a direction and when I'm close to some friends just giving them a call to see if they are around - what better way to visit people when touring around on a moto?

Pete and Meghan use to live in Alaska and have visited Seattle a few times- always a great time and I was really stoked to return a visit even just for the night.  After a weekend of great wines in Thousand Oaks I was pleasantly surprised that after a Manhattan with Pete we all went out for some great deep dish pizza and wine.  After the pizza and wine we returned back to their pad and another bottle of wine was opened - my apologies to Pete and Meghan for passing out; I really enjoyed the wine and food - and thank you so much for the bed to crash in :)

Leaving their house it was raining lightly, but as soon as I got on the freeway and stuck in the Bay Area morning commute traffic it began to downpour - pretty typical for me riding in Seattle.  As soon as I got out of the Bay Area the rain stopped, but then the crazy winds began.  It was a serious effort to go straight with these winds - those signs warning about extreme winds were quite accurate this time - I should have stopped to take a few pics of the all the windmills on these surreal looking green hills, but I seriously thought I would be blown over if I wasn't moving - and I was moving pretty fast to get out of this windy area!

As I am approaching home I really need to give a major shout and special thanks to all my friends that I've had a chance to visit and see along the way.  I am so very sincerely grateful to have such awesome friends that allowed me to crash their pads and were excited to have a meal & drinks with them and their families & friends.  I really can't say thank you enough for sharing your time with me.  My apologies for everyone I missed along the way - I really didn't plan this trip with much in mind except to ride a few places and see all that I could see along the way.

"Yeah it's fine, we'll walk down the line
Leave our rain, a cold trade for warm sunshine
You my friend - I will defend
And if we change, well I love you anyway"